Thieves strike during Cyclone Gita blackout

One of the supermarket workers pointing out where the thieves broke into the store.

An estimated $3,000 worth of products and cash was stolen from one of the supermarkets in Apia during a break in incident last weekend.

It was one of several thieving incidents reported to have taken place while the country was being lashed by Cyclone Gita.

According to one of the supermarket’s employees, elei materials, boxes of cigarettes, alcohol, phone cards and cash, which was still in the teller machine, and few other items from the shelves were stolen.

Another supermarket employee, who didn’t want her name to be published, confirmed that the break-in took place minutes after the electricity was switched off on Friday night.

The break-in incident also took place when Cyclone Gita was at its peak.

“We came in the morning when the road was cleared to open up the shop to find out that there was no money inside our till machine,” the employee said.

“Cigarette boxes were missing, alcohol was stolen and there were no phone cards.

Inside the store where the thief struck during Cyclone Gita.

“That is basically what happened at our shop. It’s sad that this could happen at a time like this but that’s Samoa today.”

The employee said they are trying to work out what else was stolen.

“I can estimate the stolen products to be $3,000 in worth but we are still trying to find the things that went missing from the shelves as well.”

The Samoa Observer contacted the Police regarding the matter and they said investigation were in progress.

“The matter has been with the Police and our investigations are underway to find whoever is responsible for this matter.